Verner Johnson has been working as Design Architect with NC-based Architect Morris-Berg, the City of Monroe, NC and the Monroe Tourism Development Authority to redevelop an abandoned property on the edge of downtown. The Monroe Tourism Development Authority determined that a hands-on science and learning-themed facility would not only be an asset for city and county residents, but would serve to attract residents from surrounding counties. Construction on the building and site has begun in November of 2018.

Verner Johnson’s task was to convert a one story, windowless brick building, originally built as a grocery store, into an exciting new children’s science museum within a very tight budget. We developed concept options for the exterior with the approach to let the existing building be a neutral background for a playful, eye-catching and engaging entry sequence from the street and the adjacent parking area into the building.

With the Center’s focus on science learning for a toddler to teen audience, we chose to express structural and architectonic design elements to respond to the mission of the museum as a facility to inspire inquisitiveness. Floating in front of the existing building, sloped steel tube columns of varying dimensions playfully support colorful, shaped canopies in a myriad of geometries. Outdoor exhibit panels and simple interactives are part of the entry experience sequence, including the playful, anagram-like building signage. The canopies float at varying heights, like staffs of written music, with each letter of the building’s signage floating above like notes of different values.